


At your door

by mostlyclouds



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Rhaegar is a dick, and also feels guilty over what happens, arthur has a huge crush on elia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 07:36:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14303919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mostlyclouds/pseuds/mostlyclouds
Summary: Arthur Dayne turns up on Elia's doorstep a few days after the biggest secret in the seven Kingdoms is revealed to the world, wanting to clear the air after what happens.Alternatively titled, every one having to deal with Rhaegar's massive assholery while Elia and Arthur both deal with crushes on each other.





	At your door

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing in a long time, and my first time writing anything thrones related- let alone these two, so criticism/ advice is always appreciated. 
> 
> This is just a one-shot atm but I kind of like writing modern au's so it may turn into a series of one-shots, idk. 
> 
> Just a note, Lyanna in this is still around 16- which I haven't tagged as under-age as it is only mentioned, and never gone into in particularly much depth- but obviously, her and Rhaegar's relationship is that of very dubious consent.

Arthur stood in front of the front door of the house he knew so well at this point. Never before had the red door seemed so intimidating, but now with all that had happened in the last few days. Or at least come out in the last couple of days. He cursed himself for not having seen it coming. Swallowing his courage he lifted his fist and knocked. The door opened, a fraction at first, and then slowly open. There she stood. Dressed in baggy sweatpants and her hair in a top knot, Rhaenys balanced perfectly on her hip. She looked tired, but the anger in her eyes was fiery and real. 

“Elia, I….” he started

“Did you know?” The words were strong, defiant- and that alleviated some of his worry at least. Elia Martell had always been and always would be stronger than her husband had ever given her credit as, but if anyone had a reason to be sad 

All Arthur could do was sigh. Fury flitted across Elia’s face and she went to close the door, Arthur only just managed to stop it with his foot in time. He winced as it hit him, for a slight woman Elia was strong. 

“ Please, let me explain. I… I never meant for any of this to happen. He never told me all of what was going on. You’re not the only one whose trust he betrayed”. Slowly the door was opened again. 

“Come in,” she gestured  
He walked into the apartment he was so familiar with, the air hung with heedy spices that reminded him of home. Rhaegar hadn't liked his home to smell of Dorish food, he said his clients didn’t like it when he bought them back to the flat. Looking back at it Arthur wondered if it were the former part rather than the latter he disagreed with. 

The living room itself had changed-gone were the dark drapes and battered wine-sofa where Arthur had slept several nights, yet never been able to get comfy. The Ebony-coloured furniture had been replaced with sweeping curved shapes, potted with family photos, children's toys and the kind of clutter that Rhaegar disliked in his house- but the kind that you always had to expect with kids 

“I see you've started to redecorate” he said, gesturing to the new oval chairs, plush with saffron yellow cushions, effortlessly chic and effortlessly Elia. “It started with that couch, I did hate that old thing, and when I looked at it I couldn't help remembering” her high cheeks coloured slightly “our student days. I kissed him for the first time on that couch, and it far from the only time. I couldn't help wondering every time I looked at it, if he ever meant any of those kisses, or words said on that couch. If he said the same things to that girl, on our couch, and if she fell for those lies in the same place I did” her eyes grew stormy, as she bitterly recounted memories that had once been sweet. 

Arthur remembered those days all too well. After a business trip to Sunspear Rhaegar had returned with not only a new client, but a new girlfriend as well. As a young boy in Dorne Arthur had been too invested in his future to pay much attention to his surroundings- getting the best grades- getting a good law degree- a good job- had been his focus. Still he couldn't help but recognise his sister’s close friend. If anything she had grown more beautiful than when he last saw her- heavy lidded dark eyes, skin deeper than either of her brothers and glossy thick dark hair. Even her lilting voice was charmingly familiar to Arthur's ears. 

Conversation between the two had flown effortlessly, she was witty and ready to make intelligent remarks and Arthur happy to listen. He remembered the twinge of jealousy in Rhaegar’s eyes as they would spend evenings slightly apart from the group- just the two of them, joined by Lewyn, when he decided to join them in their youthful debauchery. It had been nice to just be Dornish, for a change, rather than the almost northerner of the group. He remembered one evening in particular, when, as he fetched drinks for the two of them from the bar, a drunk Rhaegar had pushed into him-pulling him away from the rest of the group. “she's mine, you know.” he had growled “She's mine, and she's never going to be yours. And if you try anything no law firm will ever hire you again.” then he disappeared, yanking Elia’s drink out Arthur's hand. By the time the Dorish man rejoined the group he was stood there laughing, at something Myles, the newest intern, had said, with one arm possessivly draped over Elia. 

The next time they'd seen each other Rhaegar had apologised profusely, blaming on the stress of the upcoming wedding and they'd gone out together, drinking till the world spun and everything seemed perfect again. However, not long after he'd walked in on them, and Rhaegar merely caught his eyes and smirked, Elia pulling away from her then fiance in embarrassment. Arthur fled the room, trying to erase the image from his head and struggling not with the pale silver head and subtly muscled torso that he'd crushed on when he first arrived in Kings landing- but the slender body under him on the old couch, and Rhaegar’s willingness to embarrass both him and Elia to claim his own dominance. And the thing was he had been sure that rhaegar had known he was coming over then. He'd dismissed it in his mind, but now his once best friends pettiness came flooding back. 

In the living room that Elia had reclaimed as her own Arthur placed a hand over hers. “If its worth anything I'm glad that ugly things gone too”

Wiping away a tear she hadn't known was there, Elia laughed 

“Do you mean my husband or the sofa?”

Arthur couldn't help joining in- and across the floor where she played diligently with blocks Rhaenys caught the adults laugh and echoed it with a chortle of her own- bubbling and utterly charming. Elia smiled over at her daughter fondly- gesturing at her to come over. Wobbling, she scurried over on chubby little legs. Arthur was about to get up to help her when her mother waved him down “She prefers to do things for herself, independent. A true Dornish princess” she said with a smile as her daughter collapsed into her arms, proud of her own achievement. 

“Speaking of Dorne, do you have any plans to go back?” Arthur asked. Elia raised one slender brow “Have you?”

“The targaryens sponsored my degree, I couldn't leave the firm even if I wanted to”

“and do you?” Elia, asked softly, to which arthur could only sighed, running a hand through his hair.

“i don't know. It just- it just feels like giving up. I've worked so hard to get here and to let it all go and go back to the familiar and the safe… Seems like a waste”

“You're talents would be better respected back home, no one would look at your name and think- Oh a dornishman- before they'd even seen, let alone spoken to you” Arthur winced at the pain of experience that coloured the words. 

“But if I can't make it here, top of my class, rich family how will some other Dornish kid without those. Elia we can't just retreat into ourselves and disappear from the world. Dornish people need to be seen for the world to become comfortable we seeing us”

Elia scoffed slightly “That's easier for you to say than me, you're easy on their eye- god you might as well be from the North, your accents all but gone and you look like one of them in so many ways.”

“But I'm not. I never will be, I might be paler than most from Dorne, but it is my home, and I will fight for it. It’s just the battles here, not back there” Arthur’s voice rose slightly before he checked it. This was a debate they’d had many times before, but everything had changed now… 

“Excuse me if I have enough battles to face” Elia muttered, playing with her cooing daughter and turning her face down to avoid the shame that lit up Arthur’s eyes. 

“I know, I'm sorry. I didn't know about…”

“Not in front of the kids” Elia interrupted. “Your sister’s coming over tonight, she can babysit them, then we'll talk” That was news to Arthur, but he nodded dumbly. For all his sister knew he was taking Rhaegar’s side in all this. He was ashamed that she could even think he'd be so callous- but he'd drifted apart from his siblings in his years in the capital. 

“I'll see you then, then” he spoke in a subdued voice. Elia gave him a polite smile and got up to lead him out. As he followed a suddenly a surprise attack was launched- Rhaenys was clinging to his leg like a limpet, giggling as he mimed trying to lift his leg as I'd she the heaviest weight in the world. 

Elia leant against the wall trying the hide her smile as the massive man tried to gently prise her daughter off his leg. He asked, he begged, he pulled mock pouty faces to Rhaenys delight. Finally he reached into his inside pocket- careful to show the contents to Elia first. She nodded. 

“Rhaenys” he crooned “if you let go I'll give you this” out of his pocket he pulled out a bar of chocolate. Instantly the 3 year old let go, eyes wide at the sight of chocolate. She stood up and reached out. 

“what’s the magic word? “ Elia reminded her. 

“Please, Uncle Arthur” she asked, with all the solemn sincerity of a toddler. Arthur smiled, giving her the bar and ruffled the dark head of hair. He turned to Elia debating what to do- normally he would have hugged her, a kiss on the cheeks, the usual- however now there was a danger to such familiarity, as she was no longer an impossible daydream. He pushed aside the thought and instead just squeezed her hand. 

“I’ll see you at 8” Elia said, Arthur nodding his response and headed out the door- a sudden weight gone from his chest, she didn’t hate him completely. 

By the time Arthur knocked on Elia’s door it was 8:30. He had spent far longer than usual trying to work out what to wear, which cologne to put on, how to style his hair. He felt like a teenager at prom again. He cursed himself, it wasn’t even a real date. Or any sort of date. Still when he knocked on that door, he felt his stomach lurch with nerves as the red door swung open. From inside, he could hear the noise of the soundtrack to one of the latest big cartoon movies. But his attention was mostly drawn to Elia. She wore a pair of orange red culottes, a simple loose linen blouse- buttoned up just low enough for his attention to be drawn to the triangle of tanned skin exposed. Her makeup was impeccable as always, while her full lips were accentuated with a lipstick that matched her trousers and were almost to distracting to be fair from Arthur’s point of view. She looked chic, effortless and almost breathtakingly beautiful. Inside his sister called up, poking her head around from the main room to say hi before being pulled away by a very excited Rhaenys. 

The two of them headed out, the clack of Elia’s heels sounding on the cobblestones. Even with the considerable wedges she was still considerably shorter than him. They walked down the streets talking, but careful to avoid any topics of any real weight. She revealed her plans to repaint the red front door to a more cheery and infinitely more inviting yellow. Arthur talked about the latest stresses of his work. The space between them seemed to be impenetrable. They walked close, almost close enough for Arthur’s hand to brush against Elia’s. It was too tempting to take those slim fingers in his own, but at the same time absolutely impossible. 

The bar she had chosen was not one of their regulars- and was cosy and inviting, with old battered chairs and brightly coloured tiles. It was utterly different from the bars Arthur was used to hanging out with his little brotherhood from work, this was her territory, not his. 

Sat down in a small table by the window, with a drink in hand, it was time. Undeniably nervous, Arthur took a long gulp from his drink and began 

‘ We’d been at the court that day and we were all tired and stressed out. At that point Myles was still very green and it was one of his first cases- so we’d decided to treat ourselves. We only planned to have a few drinks, but as it often did, that plan didn’t work out. Ray had been in a good mood recently, and we were sitting and talking while the younger lot were flirting with some girls from another division of the company, corporate if I remember correctly. We’d realised how old we felt, him settled down with kids and me replaced by Jaime as the one that the girls look at first. So we sat there talking about how old we were and the good old days. Suddenly Ray brings up playing again, how it’d been years since his days moonlighting as an artist before his dad made him promise he’d give it up. But he was going on and on about how he missed it, so I encouraged him, fool that I was, to take it up again. He made me promise not to tell anyone, to avoid it getting round to his father. 

We started going round the old haunts, the bars and the little indie venues. Listening to what’s out there, me sitting at the bar while Rhaegar played- and he was just as good if not better than before. One of the first new songs he wrote was actually about little Aeg, and it was touching and sweet and I didn’t see any problem with it. I thought he just went out when I was there to cover for him. But I guess he must have started going out by himself. That’s when he met her. Elia, I don’t want you to think bad about her- cos honestly she’s a sweet kid. We’d seen her at these circuits before, mostly listening, but when Rhaegar introduced her she kept talking about how she wanted to play. I heard her play a couple of times, she’d little actual training and wasn’t too polished, but she had style and nimble fingers. I didn’t really see a problem with it. We- I didn’t know she was that young. I guess I’d just assumed she was the same age we had been when we’d gotten involved in the circuit- y’know uni student, early 20s, not 16. 

She started hanging out with us, she was from the North, and the only people she’d known at Kings Landing were either her father’s age or friends of her older brothers. I never knew the details, but there’d been something that had gone on between one of her brother’s friends and her, and he’d never been able to accept the fact she didn’t want to date him- and insisted she was just playing hard to get. And that was all I knew Elia, she was just a friend of sorts- who for all I knew looked up to Ray as an artist- not even a big enough part of our lives for me to think of it as a problem. I guess I was aware they sometimes met up outside of gigs- but I thought he wanted to coach her, not- 

The first I knew about anything further than friendship between the two was when her brother came to the office. I wasn’t there when he got there, we’d been out with a client. But Lewyn texted me, letting me know that something was going down. By the time we got there security was dragging him out but something about what he’d said, and how quiet Rhaegar suddenly went made me suspicious. I went after Stark, I told myself it was just to confirm it wasn’t true. Except he couldn’t confirm that, could he. It all came out. Lyanna’s real age, that Rhaegar had flirted and flattered her. Got her pregnant, happily playing the expectant father. He’d told her that the two of you were married, but soon to be divorced, how he was desperately unhappy. And she fell for the easy lies of that bastard, same way I had. I went back to the office to confront Rhaegar, who'd disappeared by that point, I started asking round, it turned out some of them had known more than I did. It ended with a massive argument within our circle, I stormed out with Lewyn. And that's it. I promise that's it. I haven't spoken to Ray or most of the others since, though Jaime’s asked me how you’re holding up.” He paused, unsure of what to say next. What more was there to say. His pause grew pregnant and grew as he tried to think of something, som wise comment, a strong defense. For fucks sake, he was a lawyer after all, he told himself, he should be able to offer up a defense. But there was nothing. Until Elia finally spoke, 

“So you expect me to believe that you’ve known this girl for months and months and never thought anything taboo was going on, yet also never thought she was suitable to bring up in conversation?”

Arthur looked into his drink, uncomfortable “I promised Ray not to” he muttered, aware of the feeble nature of this excuse. Elia scoffed. “And you didn’t think that was at all suspicious”

“I didn’t think, Elia, I know I should have, but maybe I was aware of something going to but didn’t want to rock the boat. You had two kids, and an ideal life and…” he trailed off, aware of the feebleness of his excuses. 

Elia sighed deeply “Look it didn’t come as a complete surprise. Rhaegar’s rarely been at home lately, and when he is he’s been distant. It’s almost reassuring to know it’s because he’s a bastard and it’s not to do with me.” Arthur instinctively took her hand to try and provide some comfort. It wounded him to see the surprise in her eyes at the contact. All he wanted to do was wrap her up in his arms and fight away those who had caused her pain. The problem was he was one of them, or at least he felt like it. 

“How could it ever be to do with you?” he asked softly, almost to himself. Elia did not reply. Instead a slow silence passed between them, neither quite able to speak past the lump in their throats, hand in hand across the wooden table. The small circles Arthur’s thumb rubbed against her hand her slow and comfortable, his finger’s calloused from long days holding a pen and his doubtless frequent visits to the gym. At least that’s how Elia assumed he stayed in such good shape, admiring his shoulders and the way the muscles in his arms showed through his shirt when he flexed.  
He was definitely different from her husband, who was all lithe sinew. Elia turned her face away, realising she had been staring at his arms at tad too long. You’re not even divorced yet, she reminded herself, and he’s Ashara’s brother. But it was a tempting prospect- she had always admired his even features, the way his dark hair curled slightly and his purple eyes, on paper so similar to her husband’s but completely different in the flesh- his held a quiet mirth in them framed by long dark lashes that any maid would be jealous of. His lips were fuller too, she noticed, in her study of his face, admiring the way they flushed as he chewed his bottom lip. She imagined kissing those lips, an abstract thought she’d had before, but tried to push away. But now, any guilt at admiring him was residual. 

Gods be good, she wanted to forgive him so badly. But it seemed almost too tempting, for him to be innocent in the matter. He’d as much as admitted he’d turned a blind eye to avoid having to deal with his suspicions. Then again she reasoned with herself, she had done the same to a degree- avoiding mentioning her husband’s absences and causing a fight. And she knew the blame did not lie at her feet either. It lay at her husband’. It wasn’t fair for them to be torn apart by his actions, and ultimately she knew Arthur was on her side in this- otherwise why would he be there. Besides, she thought, on a more pragmatic line- Arthur Dayne would be a valuable asset. He was well known to be a friend of her husband’s and if he sided with her over him it sent out a message to the world. And she was tired of being lonely, of being pushed away and treated like other by so many of the people in this cruel city.

A waiter came about bought them food, disrupting her reflections. After devouring food, Arthur leaned back, daring himself to ask that all important question. “So… Am I forgiven?” 

“For now” Elia replied with a slight smirk, “on one condition though, you get me the best goddamn divorce lawyer in this city”


End file.
